Jan '24

Hi! It's been a long time since I came to the forums, but life made it hard to focus on drawing. I've been drawing ocassionally sometimes, but I'd like to come back to it.

So in order to go back to drawing, I decided to do Marc's 30 day challenge to draw characters. So far has been interesting. Today was day 14 and I redrew the original piece (Hatsune Miku). It's not exactly finished (wanted to finish it later but I was a bit tired) so I wanted to share it to see possible mistakes.

I have a special doubt I wanted to ask. Probably because of the previous day exercise, I moved my drawing over the reference several times to check if proportions or the pose were correct and made some corrections (not tracing, only copying). Now, I'm not sure if that is a good idea or not, I mean, I know I'm still learning, but is it bad to check my drawing this way?

PD: here are some exercises from previous days

Jan '24

Cool drawings!

If you want to achieve even cleaner line art, I would probably do a rough sketch first, with a brush that changes value/opacity based on pressure, and then do a second pass with a harder brush after. Ctrl + z is your friend! it is often better to get the curves drawn in one stroke - you can always undo, if it is not right (note to myself aswell :sweat_smile: )

It might hinder your observational development, but I don't feel like there are any fixed art rules that you must follow.

Jan '24

Thanks for your advice. So far what I do with lineart is rough sketch first > lower opacity of layer > do lineart in a new layer on top. I still have to work on my lineart and maybe experiment with other brushes (for now I'm using Marc's collection of brushes)

And yeah, I was worried about moving the drawing on top of the reference being negative in some way. I guess I have to be mindful that yeah, I can use that but very little and try to see with my own eyes if things are wrong or not.

Jan '24
3

I think your approach to line art is perfectly valid, and I am certain that Marks brushes will be plenty to get the job done!

Maybe you could try the transform tool as an alternative. It is pretty effective to do minor corrections to shapes, in the sketch phase

Jan '24

It is a good challenge. My advice is that when you draw a rough sketch, try to deconstruct the drawing into big, primitive shapes. Also, avoid the snowman effect on arms and legs.

Jan '24

Hi! Can you explain me that "snowman effect"? Never heard of it before.